Public works committee discusses drainage issues on Mecca Avenue

Mecca Avenue Stormwater

BEZ Department employee Greg Cobb points out drainage issues on Mecca Avenue to members of the City Council on Oct. 15, 2018.

Homewood's drainage pipes are old — in some cases, they were installed as early as the 1920s. As development has continued and houses have gotten bigger, the amount of stormwater runoff has exceeded the demand those pipes were originally built to handle.

Building, Engineering and Zoning Department employee Greg Cobb said he has been looking at the runoff issues on Mecca and speaking with developers. There are four new homes on the west side of the street, with room for two more, and three new homes on the east side of the street.

“What is already becoming a problem is only going to get worse, exponentially worse,” Ward 1 Councilor Britt Thames said.

Replacing grass and trees with houses and driveways means more water is flowing off those properties instead of being absorbed into the ground, Cobb said.

Cobb said he is speaking with the developers about using retention ponds and bioswales to "slow that water down" and keep it in one place so more can be absorbed into the ground.

“We know that the system below is not going to be able to hold a lot of water,” Cobb said.

Ward 1 Councilor Andy Gwaltney asked if the city should consider bigger projects to give the drainage system more capacity.

“I just don’t want us to put a Band-Aid on this and be back in this position,” Gwaltney said.

The committee voted to send the issue to the finance committee to fund another stormwater drainage study from Walter Schoel Engineering, to come up with potential solutions. Cobb said after the meeting that Walter Schoel has not yet set a date to share its findings from the study on Huntington Road, Lancaster Road and Bonita Drive with the City Council.

Related to runoff issues, the City Council will also schedule a public hearing for a series of zoning ordinance changes that will include limits on how much of a property can be covered by "hard" surfaces (such as homes, driveways and patios) and changes to the setback limits.

Also on Oct. 15, a representative for Trinity United Methodist Church came to the special issues committee about blocking off part of the sidewalk and some parallel parking spaces around the church with a construction fence.

Trinity is about to begin a 14-month construction project in the next two months, and the representative asked to place a 6-feet-tall construction fence to block the sidewalk by the church. The fence would block the sidewalk on the north side of Oxmoor Road from Seminole Drive until about the midpoint of the church in front, as well as sidewalks on part of Seminole Drive. Some parallel parking spaces would be lost as well.

During construction, the western entrance to the church on Oxmoor Road and the student entrance would be accessible, but some of Trinity's other Oxmoor and Seminole entries would be closed.

The church is asking to block these areas because it allows easier access to the construction site for heavy equipment and would keep pedestrians farther away from the site.

However, committee members noted those sidewalks and parking spots are heavily used, and some of the sidewalks on the opposite side of those streets are not in as good of condition. They said people would likely just walk in the road around the fence rather than crossing to the sidewalk on the other side.

The committee first moved in favor of placing the fence around the church without blocking the sidewalks, but they changed the motion after learning that the request would also help with construction access to the site.

The special issues committee voted 3-1 to approve Trinity's original request, with Ward 5 Councilor Jennifer Andress opposed. The issue will go to the full City Council for a vote, and Thames told Trinity's representative to come prepared to present plans for site access and material delivery.

The finance committee is continuing to review a set of changes to its business license fee structure. City Finance Director Robert Burgett said the city is exploring an upper limit on the new 1/10 of 1 percent license fee that will be charged to real estate rental and leasing companies in Homewood.

The finance committee also went into a 10-minute executive session, its second one this month, to discuss an economic development project.